A Study Of Trichomes After Cutting by Dankloud, PhDork

Hello all! I am not sure if this is where I should be posting this or not, but I felt like this should be in its own topic, instead of just residing in my grow journal. Please move it to the necessary category if needed!

I am going to be doing a small experiment on the effects of time to trichomes after cutting. I have read that trichomes continue to develop after cutting, but just how much? How long does the degradation of THC occur?

Obviously I am just a Joe Schmoe with no crazy equipment, just a guy with questions. I am aware a ‘scientific’ approach would call for a much larger test group than just one bud from one plant, but I can only do so much lol. I plan on taking a few photos with my USB Microscope each day to gauge how fast and for how long trichomes continue to change.

Here is Day 1 of the experiment. I just cut off the cola of my plant, and took a small piece of bud from it as the test piece.

1326297027405

1326297029233

1326297029854

1326297030281

1326297030792

1326297031213

7 Likes

This is the bud in question.

6 Likes

Is it just me or are those trichs still a bit clear? Has it even peaked yet?

5 Likes

Watching, alil green

2 Likes

Ahhh, so all part of the plan? Looking for the sweet spot I imagine.

3 Likes

Indeed!
I was going back and forth trying to decide if I should cut off some from my plant last night or not. My guy wasn’t answering, and I wanted to experiment with harvest bud at different stages to see exactly how the effects differ anyways, which is something I planned on doing from the beginning. Fully aware that this would be the most premature of all the samples. I plan on taking another maybe in a weeks time. This topic is just a place for me to put my findings for myself and others if it helps people in the future. I know we are all different but :man_shrugging:

7 Likes

OK so I am definitely going to have to do this experiment again with a better stand to position the microscope. The stand it comes with is just so terrible it won’t even hold up the microscope half the time. Even the USB cable just makes it fall over. Not even worth the material that was used to make it. So here are the pictures so far though.

1326309648693 1326309704270 1326309706843 1326309712597 1326309713828 1326309716164 1326309718817

Interesting to see the changes after a bit over 24 hours since it was chopped. Especially how different the main stem is. It almost looks like it is scabbing over.

It is hard to really make good comparisons when I can’t get the bud piece in the exact same location it was. When I do this again I am going to have to figure out a way to keep it in the same position completely untouched throughout the experiment.

Put the bud on my old phone case to cut back on the reflections. I think it made for better contrast.

Also I see a few ambers now. Just 2, but they are there I think.

3 Likes

So this is a bit over 72 hours after cut.

Can definitely still see some progress in the trichomes!
Way more cloudy trichs now.
1326326154740 1326326157073 1326326159843 1326326160504 1326326167449 1326326169544 1326326172088

3 Likes

And these are the pictures from tonight. I feel like it looks mostly the same. What do you guys think? Sorry I didn’t have them in the same position each time, that would have definitely made it a lot easier to distinguish any differences… I should have more adequate equipment next time I do this to get a better result. I am curious to see if it continues to change to amber, but I know that these buds are nice and dry at this point, so I believe it may be done developing.

1326343938331 1326343944423 1326343953988 1326343959776

4 Likes

Interesting experiment. Someone with a full on lab should take this up as well. Would be nice to have data on THC, CBN and CBD level changes as well. Would be helpful in tweaking the quality.

3 Likes

Absolutely. Wish I had a full on lab… Test all the things!

Will be doing this again with better equipment and better methodologies.

2 Likes

Frigging aye!! U get a :cookie: for creativity lol

This is Stoner’s at their finest. High af and just testing :poop:

2 Likes

Lol yup. I just had to know. Plus I felt like it may be a good resource for others, but mostly seems to have flown under the radar… I will be doing another run of this at some point with better procedures to get some better results.

1 Like

Yea there’s a TON of threads. Some stuff gets lost in the bunch. No worries tho. Solid test. Im looking forward to another go of it. Hope u found something to hold the bud throughout.

Also maybe interesting to show the difference as it cures.

1 Like

Very, very awesome.

1 Like